“Hi, my name is Amy Barak-Nel­son. My mom is a Nel­son and my dad is a Barak and just in case you were won­der­ing, I’m aware I have two last names. If you don’t know me, I’m a sev­en­teen year old Amer­i­can teenag­er with red, white, and blue blood run­ning through my veins. You’re prob­a­bly won­der­ing why right now I’m on a bus in Israel on my way to an Israeli boot camp.” 

In Simone Elke­les’ third book of her ​“How To” series, How to Ruin Your Boyfriend’s Rep­u­ta­tion, you don’t have to won­der long. Amy Barak-Nel­son — dra­ma queen — holds noth­ing back. This Chica­go princess has signed up for one week of Israeli boot camp in order to see her boyfriend, Avi, who is sta­tioned there. Accom­pa­nied by her friends, Amy deals with the heat, her hair, the lan­guage, and the unex­pect­ed dis­cov­ery that her boyfriend has kissed anoth­er girl behind her back. The Israeli boot camp expe­ri­ence pro­vides chal­lenges for the Amer­i­cans, but no real dan­ger. Although the tone of the nar­ra­tive is always fun and light-heart­ed, this book offers themes that include friend­ship, loy­al­ty, for­give­ness, as well as pride in Israel. Some read­ers might find Amy shal­low or super­fi­cial, but all will find her fun lov­ing, and when it counts, able to pull it togeth­er. Chick lit read­ers will love this series. The humor­ous tone and con­tent is suit­able for read­ers 12 and up.